Quantitative evaluation on 3D fetus morphology via X‐ray grating based imaging technique

Abstract

Synchrotron‐based X‐ray phase sensitive micro‐tomography techniques enable to visualize detailed three‐dimensional (3D) insight into nondestructive inner‐structure of biomedical samples. Different phase sensitive mechanisms have been employed for discrimination of tissue's tiny density variations in biomedical research. We effectively visualized and analyzed the phase‐contrast experimental results of X‐ray grating‐based imaging, based on grating interferometry with phase stepping, by using transgenic mouse fetus. We quantitatively measured and evaluated the contrast‐to‐noise ratio or the mass density resolution, spatial resolution, radiation dose, and figure of merit of X‐ray grating‐based imaging technique in biomedical research respectively. Moreover, the complex coherent degrees of light source were duly taken into account in the analysis of spatial resolution. In addition, the mass density distribution of soft biomedical specimens can be estimated using our presented method preliminarily. For most soft tissue and organ observation, this work provides explicit guidelines to help future synchrotron users obtain the quantitative image information, suitable for their specific biomedical research.